- Project: CHANCHS Apartment
- Architect: DG Estudio
- Location: Spain, Arrancapins Neighborhood, Valencia
- Year: 2024
- Area: 130 m2
- Photography: Mariela Apollonio
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
— William Faulkner
From Nomadic to Rooted: A Journey through Color and Emotion
In the vibrant Arrancapins neighborhood of Valencia, DG Estudio has designed a home that tells a story about movement, belonging, and transformation.
The CHANCHS Apartment marks a new chapter for a young family who—after years as digital nomads—decided to put down roots and create a home filled with color, humor, and personality.
“CHANCHS” is more than a renovation; it’s a manifesto for joyful living. In this project, color becomes emotion, and architecture becomes a canvas for life’s collected memories.
Concept: Horizons and Emotional Landscapes
Before 2020, the idea of the digital nomad symbolized freedom—the ability to work from anywhere, to live in an endless summer. But at some point, the question arises: Where is home?
This project embodies that moment of reflection—the courage to trade movement for belonging.
DG Estudio conceptualizes the apartment around the metaphor of the horizon—a visual and emotional line that separates and connects two worlds: the past and the future, the old and the new.
In architectural terms, this “horizon line” runs through the apartment, uniting the original structure with its contemporary transformation.
Above it, the petrol blue of the historic moldings recalls the sky; below, the vivid Klein blue of the new furniture represents the sea.
The horizon becomes a tangible shelf—a place to rest meaningful objects, memories, and fragments of a life lived across continents.
Layout: Open Spaces and Shared Experiences
The apartment’s layout revolves around communal living, reflecting the clients’ love for gathering around a table and sharing good coffee at the end of the day.
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The entryway leads directly to the heart of the home—an open space combining kitchen, dining, living, and home office. At its core sits a striking central cupboard in Klein blue, intersected by the apartment’s original moldings.
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The hallway doubles as storage, its long white wall concealing generous cabinets that bring order without visual clutter.
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The two bathrooms, rendered in vibrant yellow and green, complete the triad of saturated tones, energizing the spaces below the horizon line.
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The bedrooms—two for children and one for the parents—feature calmer palettes, where restored ceiling moldings contrast with clean, modern lines, offering balance and tranquility.
Materiality & Atmosphere
A dialogue between old and new materials gives CHANCHS its warmth and rhythm.
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Oak flooring adds natural texture, grounding the vivid color palette.
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Macael white marble with bluish veins defines the kitchen worktop, reflecting light throughout the space.
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Original ornamental moldings were preserved and highlighted, framing the new interventions like traces of memory.
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Custom cabinetry in lacquered blues, yellows, and greens reinforces the apartment’s visual continuity and optimism.
Each surface celebrates craft, imperfection, and life—qualities that make the apartment feel deeply personal rather than merely designed.
Color as Architecture
DG Estudio’s work here is a masterclass in chromatic architecture.
Color is not decoration—it’s the project’s structural narrative, an emotional gradient linking the family’s past travels to their new, grounded reality.
The color horizon acts simultaneously as divider, connector, and display, translating the metaphor of “losing sight of the shore” into a tactile domestic experience.
A Home for New Horizons
CHANCHS is a project about starting anew without erasing the past.
It’s about turning memories gathered around the world into the foundation of a new life—a home filled with humor, courage, and light.
As Vanessa Roger and Daniel González of DG Estudio describe it:
“This home is a collection of experiences and objects from over a decade of travel. It transforms the horizon of those distant sunsets into the basis for creating new ones from home.”
